Ways to Lessen the Chance You Look Like a Job Hopper.

OK, fess up. Whenever you see a car with a couple of dents, you automatically assume that the person driving that car is a bad driver, even though there's at least a 50% chance that each incident was someone else's fault. Right?

Well, consider job candidates who’ve had a few career fender-benders that aren’t their fault. They often have to display the evidence of all of their uncontrollable mishaps, on their resume, for all to see – without the benefit of any repair or explanation.

As a result, talented job candidates are often wrongly cast as “job hoppers” when, many times, their series of brief job encounters were no fault of their own.

Let’s face it, life is unpredictable – and jobs are no exception.

? Companies have mergers that create job redundancies.

? Companies go out of business.

? Start-ups run out of money.

? Industry sectors have downturns that require massive layoffs.

? Company leadership changes and they bring in their own team.

? Employers don’t live up to the promises they originally made or the job description they presented doesn’t even resemble the new position.

? The new boss turns out to be a micro-managing psychopath.

There are other scenarios that I won’t even mention, and, as a recruiter, I’ve heard them all. If you haven’t experienced one or more of these situations, you almost certainly will at some point in your career. Hey, life happens - and no one is immune.

So, if you’re a hiring manager, get off your high horse and stop tagging prospective employees with the job-hopper label before you know all the facts. Otherwise, you’re going to miss out on some great hires - and you might also be on the other side of the table some day.

As a recruiter I often meet ridiculously talented people who have experienced a series of unanticipated career-hiccups – and rarely did any of them have anything to do with their performance.

So what does a person do when this happens?

Well, they first have to shake it off and figure out how to tell this messy, unfortunate story within their resume. Next, they need to remind themselves that their resume is NOT their permanent record. Trust me, HR will eventually ask you to cough up the gory details – but don’t allow your resume (your lead generation device) to scare folks away. Get the interview!

Everyone’s situation is different, so in this post I can’t cover all of the different ways professional resume writers, like our own, can greatly lessen the chance that someone will paint you with an unforgiving brush – but here are a few suggestions:

? Stick with years and not years/months on your job chronology. In most cases, a job that lasted less than six months doesn’t belong on your resume. So, if you stick with years, it doesn’t show a gap. Just use the word “RELEVANT EXPERIENCE” as the heading on your jobs – and a brief position is rarely relevant.

? If you had some temporary positions or a series of consulting engagements – while looking for a new position – don’t give each one of them a separate job entry. Instead, group them under one subhead labeled, for instance “Various Engagements (2013 - 2014)”.

? When possible, provide a brief, reason (in italics) for leaving your short-lived positions – immediately after the company name (e.g. “Company Merger Required Massive Layoff”). Note: If the reason was complicated, don’t attempt to explain it in detail on your resume.

? If at all possible, don’t list highly irrelevant “port in the storm” positions on your resume. It’s understandable if you had to take a temporary position – well below where you’ve been just to pay the bills – but, by listing it, the damage to your “personal brand” might be greater than any questions an employer might have with a brief gap.

The point of all this is that you shouldn’t place ANYTHING on your resume that could create concern or give someone pause in deciding whether to interview you.

Once you show up, you’ll have plenty of time to mention – in person – any episodic positions you deemed irrelevant to include on your resume. However, remember to rehearse your explanation and don’t spend more than 20 seconds explaining it. Also, watch your body language. I often see job candidates “emotionally return” to an upsetting career event during an interview. While delivering the brief explanation – wear a smile and, when appropriate, display a sense of humor about your misfortune.

NOTE: The average American changes jobs every 4.4 years – so remember that job-hopping isn’t necessarily bad. In fact, job candidates can often be seen as more attractive to employers when they can show that they’ve successfully adapted to different situations. Additionally, properly timed job changes can actually translate into quicker personal earnings growth. Otherwise, you might be looking at cost-of-living increases for the duration of a long career with the same company. 

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